Clue (board game) | Clue Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Genre Murder-Mystery Clue (Cluedo outside the U.S.) is a popular murder-mystery board game. It was originally published in Leeds, England in 1949. It was devised by Anthony E. Pratt, a so ly move around the game board (a mansion), as of one of the game's six suspects (or, collecting clues from which to deduce which suspect murdered the game's perpetual victim: Mr. Boddy ( Dr. Black , outside of U.S.), and with which weapon and in what room. Several games, books, and a film have been released as part of the Cluedo franchise. The board game forms a chronology. Overall, several spinoffs have been released, some featuring extra characters, and for some, different game play. More recent editions have restored the name Boddy Mansion to the mansion, and say the mansion is located in Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1954 (located in Hampshire, England outside of the U.S.). Contents Edit In 1944, Anthony E.

Pratt, an English solicitor's clerk, filed for a patent of his invention of a murder/mystery-themed game, originally named "Murder!" The game was originally invented as a new game to play during sometimes lengthy air raid drills in underground bunkers. Shortly thereafter, Pratt and his wife presented the game to Waddingtons' executive, Norman Watson, who immediately purchased the game and provided its trademark name of "Cluedo" (a play on "clue" and "Ludo", which is Latin for "I play"). Though the patent was granted in 1947, due to post-war shortages, the game was not officially launched until 1949, at which time the game was simultaneously licensed to Parker Brothers in the United States for publication, where it was re-named "Clue" along with other minor changes. However, there were several differences between the original game concept and that initially published in 1949, In particular, Pratt's original design calls for ten characters, one of whom was to be designated the victim by random drawing prior to the start of the game. These ten included the eliminated Mr. Brown, Mr. Gold, Miss Grey, and Mrs.

Silver, with Nurse White, and Colonel Yellow. The game allowed for play of up to eight remaining characters, providing for nine suspects in total. Originally there were eleven rooms, including the eliminated "gun room" and cellar. In addition there were nine weapons including the unused axe, bomb, syringe, poison, shillelagh (walking stick/cudgel), and fireplace poker. Some of these unused weapons and characters would appear in later spinoff versions of the game. Some gameplay aspects were different as well. Notably, the remaining playing cards were distributed into the rooms to be retrieved, rather than dealt directly to the players. Players also had to land on another player in order to make suggestions about that player's character through the use of special counter-tokens, and once exhausted, a player could no longer make suggestions. There were other minor differences, all of which would be updated by the game's initial release and remain essentially unchanged in the standard classic editions of the game. Equipment Edit The game's current equipment consists of a board which shows the rooms, corridors and secret passages of an English country house called Boddy Mansion, although previously named variously as Tudor Close or Tudor Hall, and in some editions Tudor Manor or Tudor Mansion).

The game box also includes several colored playing pieces to represent characters, miniature murder weapon props, one or two six-sided dice, three sets of cards, each set describing the aforementioned rooms, characters and weapons, Solution Cards envelope to contain one card from each set of cards, and a Detective's Notes pad on which are printed lists of rooms, weapons and characters, so players can keep detailed notes during the game. Suspects Edit Depending on edition, the playing pieces are typically made of colored plastic, shaped like chess pawns, or character figurines. Occasionally they are made from wood or pewter. The standard edition of Cluedo comes with six basic tokens representing the following original characters: Ms. Vivienne Scarlet , the sultry and beautiful actress of the game. Col. Michael Mustard , the militant and athletic colonel of the game. Mrs. Blanche White , the intrusive and kindly maid of the game. Rev. Jonathan Green , the conniving and religious priest(mobster) of the game. Mrs. Elizabeth Peacock , the sinister and political senator of the game. Prof. Peter Plum , the uptight and intelligent professor of the game.

The new suspects are: Edit There are nine rooms in the mansion where the murder can take place, laid out in a circular fashion on the game board, separated by pathways overlaid by playing spaces. Each of the four corner rooms contains a secret passage that leads to the room on the opposite diagonal corner of the map. The center room (often referred to as the Cellar, or Stairs) is inaccessible to the players, but contains the solution envelope, and is not otherwise used during game play. Colored "start" spaces encircle the outer perimeter which correspond to each player's suspect token. Miss Scarlet starts at the red space, Colonel Mustard starts at the yellow space, Mrs. White starts at the white space, Mr. Green starts at the green space, Mrs. Peacock starts at the blue space, and Professor Plum starts at the purple space. Here are the original rooms of Boddy Estate: Kitchen † ‡ denotes secret passages to opposite corner Rules Edit At the beginning of play, three cards — one suspect, one weapon, and one room card — are chosen at random and put into a special envelope, so that no one can see them. These cards represent the facts of the case.

The remainder of the cards are distributed among the players. Players are instructed to go and get the token/suspect nearest them. Play begins with Ms. Scarlet and proceeds clockwise. Players roll the dice and move along the board spaces accordingly, and entering rooms in order to make suggestions from that room. The player's suggestion only gets disproved once. So, though several players may hold cards disproving the suggestion, only the first one will show the suggesting player his or her card. A player may only make a suggestion when his or her piece is in a room and the suggestion can only be for that room. Once a player has sufficiently narrowed the solution, that player can make an accusation. According to the rules, "When you think you have worked out which three cards are in the envelope, you may, on your turn, make an Accusation and name any three elements you want." Players may name any room (unlike a Suggestion, where a player's character pawn must be in the room the player suggests). The accusing player checks the validity of the accusation by checking the cards, keeping them concealed from other players.

If he has made an incorrect accusation, he plays no further part in the game except to reveal cards secretly to one of the remaining players when required to do so in order to disprove suggestions. Also, according to the rules, "If, after making a false Accusation, your character pawn is blocking a door, [you must] move it into that room so that other players may enter." Since a character pawn can only block a door by being outside of a room, this clearly demonstrates that the character pawn need not be in any room to make an Accusation. If the player made a correct accusation, the solution cards are shown to the other players and the game ends. It is possible for a player to be using the piece representing the murderer. This does not affect the game play; the object of the game is still to be the first to make the correct accusation. If the game is played with two people, the process of elimination diffuses the same information to both players. Such a game tends to pass quickly. All editions of the current version of the game are advertised as a three-six player game only. Traditionally, the UK version was advertised for two-six players.

Strategy Edit Though gameplay is relatively straightforward as described above, various strategies allow players to maximize their opportunities to make suggestions and therefore gain the advantage of accumulating information faster. As alluded to above, blocking the entrance to a room is one way to prevent an opponent from entering a desired room and making a suggestion. Choice of Suspect Edit The first opportunity is in choosing the initial playing piece. Mrs. Peacock has an immediate advantage of being one space closer to the first room than any of the other players. However, Ms. Scarlet traditionally moves first. Prof. Plum also has an advantage of moving to the Study, then through the secret passage to the Kitchen, the hardest room to get to. Navigating the Board Cluedo / Clue Frequently Asked Questions What is Cluedo / Clue / Detetive / / Cluedo (Europe & Australia), Clue (North America), Detetive (Brazil), Mystery Game (Japan) and Cluedo (China) are all different names for the same game (hereafter refered to as Cluedo for simplicity). Cluedo is a game of deduction where you get to play detective by trying to work out whodunit, with what and where.

Who invented Cluedo, when and where? Cluedo was invented by Anthony E. Pratt [E = Ernest], a solicitor's clerk from Birmingham in England. He invented the game in 1943 with the help of his wife (who designed the board). In 1948 he submitted it to Waddington's Games in Leeds, who published it for the first time in 1949. For more information, see the Patent . What does the name "Cluedo" mean? "Cluedo" is a pun on the traditional game "Ludo" (which is also Latin for "I play"); mixed with the word Clue for the murder mystery element. So it's saying Murder Mystery Boardgame in one word. I believe Ludo is not well known in the USA, thus as the pun would not be understood, Parker Brothers probably decided to just call it Clue for marketing reasons. What was the original name of the game? It was originally named "Murder", but changed it's name to Cluedo / Clue before publication. Who were the original suspects? The original ten suspects were Doctor Black, Mr. Brown, Mr. Gold, The Rev. Mr.

Green, Miss Grey, Professor Plum, Miss Scarlet, Nurse White, Mrs. Silver and Colonel Yellow. These were changed to the infamous six - Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, Reverend Green, Mrs. White, Miss Scarlett and Mrs. Peacock when the game was published. For more information, see the Patent . What were the original weapons? The original nine weapons were: Axe , Shillelagh? (1) , Bomb, Rope, Dagger, Pistol, Hypodermic Syringe, Poison and Poker. For more information, see the Patent . What are the suspects called in other countries? For a list of the names that I know about - please see the International Section . If you know of any others not listed, then please Contact Me In which county was Dr. Black murdered? This was a question posed in the Bechtel Engineering Christmas Quiz 2001. For all those that need the answer, I think the answer you want is "Hampshire". This is because the 2000 edition of the game has a newspaper on the front cover; on which it says: "The eminent anthropologist and man of letters Dr Black was found dead last night at his Hampshire home...".

How many possible solutions are there in the standard game? 6 * 6 * 9 = 324 permutations. Products Where can I buy Master Detective/Super Sleuth/Super Cluedo Challenge/Jigsaws/Passport to Murder/... ? All of these games are out of print. Your best chance of finding them are from second hand or auction websites. I throughly recommend eBay.com / eBay.co.uk . Where can I get the detective notes for ... ? If you want "real" ones, contact you local Hasbro outlet (the address should be on your game box or go to Hasbro.com , Hasbro.co.uk or other Hasbro site for your country). Suda.co.uk has a very useful Detective Notepad for serious players of the Original game! Where can I buy Clue books? Most clue books can still be found on sites like Amazon . If you can't find it there, try eBay. Where can I get a UK PAL VHS copy of Clue the Movie? Clue the movie hasn't been sold on video in the UK for a good few years now.

Your only options are: It was released on Region 2 DVD (Europe, Middle East & Japan) on 3rd November 2003! Order your copy from Amazon.co.uk NOW! Keep an eye on second hand/auction sites like Buy a US NTSC version (e.g. from Amazon.com ) and buy a video player that can play NTSC (you can get them for as cheap as 40 quid last time I looked) Buy a DVD Rom drive or DVD Player that can play US / Region 1 DVDs and buy the US / Region 1 copy (e.g. from Amazon.com ) Wait till it comes on the telly again! Where is the house shown in Clue: The Movie? Michael from The Art of Murder has done a lot of investigation into the house's existence. Check out his article here . Where can I get a copy of the Cluedo TV Show / Will you copy your videos for me? Tapes of the TV show used to be obtainable from Action Time for about £10 a tape (which was sometimes an episode and sometime a series). HOWEVER, they must have changed their policy or something as for the last few years they've been quoting £100 a tape!

I'd love to do copies for people but I get a couple of emails a week from people asking me to do so - and I just don't have the time to do a single copy let alone hundreds! Thus I've had to make a rule of just saying no to everyone. It's completely illegal to copy tapes anyway. I really hope that they either bring it out on DVD or on one of the Satellite channels like Challenge TV or ITV2. All we can do is pester companies until someone listens. One place I suggest is sending an email to: wotv_postbag@ipcmedia.com ("What's On TV" magazine - who were asking for suggestions for repeats) saying that you'd love to see Cluedo repeated on telly or released on DVD. I also suggest emails to: info@actiontime.co.uk , enquiries@challenge.co.uk , Officers.duty@granadatv.co.uk and anyone else you can think of! Also sign this petition What happened to the other Clue Chronicles / Cluedo Chronicles after Fatal Illusion?

Clue(do) Chronicles was intended to be a three part series; but unfortunately the combination of Hasbro Interactive shutting down and EAI deciding that games were "not part of their core business"; meant that parts 2 and 3 weren't created and probably will never be. Where can I find a walkthrough for Fatal Illusion? A good walkthrough can be found at here . How do I open the lock in Cluedo Chronicles: Fatal Illusion? This is the toughest part of the game as the lock can be very fiddly and requires perseverance to actually get it to work! I must assure you not to give up as the rest of the game makes the effort worthwhile! IMPORTANT NOTE: The answer to this depends on whether the date format of your edition of the game is DD/MM/YY (e.g. in the UK) or MM/DD/YY (e.g. in the USA). If you are not sure, then click the word Cluedo or Clue in the bottom right corner of the game (while looking at the lock) and it will give you a hint about how to solve it and what order you should use. ANSWER (DD/MM/YY): Turn clockwise (right) to 31 and stop.

Anti-clockwise (left) to 12 BUT go round past 31 the first time and then on the second time stop on 12. Clockwise (right) to 38 and stop. Click on the door handle. ANSWER (MM/DD/YY): Turn clockwise (right) to 12 and stop. Counter-clockwise (left) to 31 BUT go round past 12 the first time and then on the second time stop on 31. Clockwise (right) to 38 and stop. Click on the door handle. Where can I get the rules to ... ? Original Cluedo Rules (1996 Version) - Use this if you are looking for the rules to Clue. Others (at Hasbro.com) Do I have to be in a room to make an accusation? No. You can make an accusation during any of your turns - no matter where you playing piece is. But don't forget - if you are wrong - you lose the game! Can I stay in a room for as long as I want to? No.

Excerpt taken from Cluedo 2000 rules : "You cannot stay in the same room whilst trying to eliminate it from the investigation; you must leave it and re-enter each time. You cannot leave and re-enter a room on the same turn, even by a different door." Can I only enter through a doorway where the door is open / ajar? This seems to be a confusion that the images in the later versions of the board has caused. You can go through any of the doorways (i.e. where there is no wall / window) whether the door is open or shut. Is landing infront of a doorway enough to enter a room? No. You must have enough moves to actually enter the room (e.g. you need to roll at least a 4 to move from the Conservatory into the Ballroom). Does a turn immediately end upon entering a room via a Secret Passage? No. The phrase "If you use a secret passage, this constitutes your move for that turn." is a little confusing, but "Move" is talking about physical movement and "Turn" is your whole turn including suggestion and possibly accusation.

So, for example, if you start your turn in the Lounge, you may move through the passage to the Conservatory and then either end your turn or make a suggestion in the Conservatory. Note: You cannot continue moving outside of the Conservatory until your next turn. Do you have any tips on playing the game? Make a note of every suggestion and deduce from it as much as possible. As each suggestion is made, go back to the previous suggestions and see if you can deduce more. Choose the suspect that you suggest very carefully. If it's one of your opponents, you may help them by pulling them into a room that they don't know about. Conversely you could hinder them by dragging them away from a room they are trying to reach. Choose you rooms carefully. Rooms are usually the hardest things to work out in the game so you may want to concentrate on this for the start of the game. Choose which room to go to by seeing which you can reach, which you have and which you have been shown. Make good use of the corner rooms. If you own both, then you can flick back and forth between them each turn and quickly find out the suspect and weapon.

If you are entering a corner room that you don't own for the first time, you may want to concentrate on suspect and weapon rather than room; as it will be easy to get back to the room to suggest again. How can I have a Cluedo / Clue themed party? Here are a few ideas which you could combine to make a Cluedo / Clue themed party: Have everyone dress up in colourful clothes and give them colourful names. Label the rooms of your house with the rooms from the game. Have a Cluedo / Clue tournament or play different variations of the game. Watch the Clue movie . Track down a rare copy of Cluedo Party Tudor Mansion Edition or failing that, buy a "How To Host A Murder" type game (Click to search Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk ) and possibly change the characters' names to be Clue characters. Hide two quiz questions (possibly Clue related or game related or just general) in every room of the house. People have to find the questions and answer them. The person with the most right answers wins. Have a treasure hunt with clues to where the next clue is hidden until you find the treasure.

Read a murder mystery story (see Mystery.net ) Everyone sits in a circle and one by one says a word which builds up a story (possibly make up a murder mystery story). Look around your area for murder mystery diner parties / murder weekends etc. Where can I play "Murder At Boddy Mansion" / "Murder At Blackwell Grange"? Since MSN's Zone.com stopped hosting the game, the only place that I believe you can play it is at Kali . However it's been many years since I heard about it being played there and they aren't in the list of games. Might be worth a try though. Where can I play Cluedo / Clue online? You used to be able to play a normal game of Cluedo / Clue at Games.com however I think they have shut it down. At the moment your only option is to play "Murder At Boddy Mansion" / "Murder At Blackwell Grange" at Kali (see above) - if that does still work.

Cluedo revamp: Jack Mustard, in the spa, with a baseball bat | Life and style | The Guardian Family Jack Mustard, in the spa, with a baseball bat In 1943, a Birmingham solicitor lamented that the war was killing the country's social life, so he invented a board game to bring back the fun. Now, Cluedo has been rebranded - with a Hollywood mansion replacing the English country house. By Kate Summerscale Friday 19 December 2008 19.01 EST First published on Friday 19 December 2008 19.01 EST Share on Messenger Close In 1948, the year the first game of Cluedo was sold in Britain, the poet WH Auden outlined the requirements of detective fiction. His essay, The Guilty Vicarage: Notes On The Detective Story, By An Addict, argued that the sleuth should investigate a murder committed within a closed and closely related community, so that all the characters were suspects. Auden recommended the use of maps and timetables, and he favoured a prosperous setting.

"The country is preferable to the town," he wrote, "a well-to-do neighbourhood (but not too well-to-do or there will be a suspicion of ill-gotten gains) better than a slum. The corpse must shock not only because it is a corpse but also because, even for a corpse, it is shockingly out of place, as when a dog makes a mess on a drawing room carpet." The original Cluedo game was based on the novels of the golden age of detective fiction, and it conformed to Auden's precepts. A limited number of suspects are confined in a country house riddled with secret passages and littered with potential instruments of death. The building is shown in plan, like a map, and the corridors are overlaid with a grid. At the board's centre is a cellar, on the steps of which an X marks the spot at which a murdered body has been found. This is the event that has transformed the house into a crime scene. The players, who are both suspects and sleuths, must discover the truth about the crime by a process of elimination, moving from ballroom to billiard room to library, and methodically crossing off the possibilities on small printed charts.

The shocking, messy event is resolved by maths, order restored by the application of logic. A new edition of the game, Cluedo Reinvention, has been released this year in time for Christmas. In some respects it plays by Auden's rules, but the setting would probably be too affluent for his taste, and certainly too urban and American: "I find it very difficult," he confessed, "to read [a detective novel] that is not set in rural England." In the new Cluedo, the murder takes place in a shiny Hollywood residence instead of a gloomy English mansion. The characters have been updated: Colonel Mustard is now Jack Mustard, a famous football player; Miss Scarlett is Kasandra Scarlet, the "hottest star on the movie scene"; Professor Plum is Victor Plum, a billionaire video-game designer (catchphrase: "Finally I am the cool crowd"). Instead of the lead piping, we have a baseball bat; instead of a billiard room, a spa; and instead of a cellar, a swimming pool. The gun is fitted with a silencer.

The new game's co-designer explained: "We wanted something that the mom or dad who's bringing it home for the family could say, 'This is what I remember and this is what I want to play with my kids', and at the same we wanted something that the kids would feel belonged to them and was very appealing to them. So we tried to blend those two worlds." But Cluedo was always set in an imagined, long-ago world. It's not as if those American moms and dads had first-hand experience of gothic country piles thronging with cooks and vicars and colonels. And nor did the game's inventor, Anthony Ernest Pratt, a 40-year-old solicitor's clerk living in suburban Birmingham in 1943. Britain was at war. Pratt was serving as a fire warden for the ARP (Air Raid Precautions) and as a soldier in the Home Guard. He also did his bit by working in one of the city's factories, where almost half a million Brummies were churning out Spitfires, Hurricanes, shells, tanks, amphibian craft and submachine guns.

These factories endured a long bombing campaign: during the Birmingham Blitz of 1940 to 1943, the Luftwaffe destroyed 13,000 buildings and took more than 2,000 lives. Pratt's private response to the war was idiosyncratic. One summer evening in 1943, as he was leaning on his garden fence, "it dawned on me that this wretched old war was killing the country's social life". He yearned for the days of old, he said, when "we lived like lords. All the bright young things would congregate in each other's homes for parties at weekends. We would play a stupid game called Murder, where guests crept up on each other in corridors, and the victim would shriek and fall to the floor. Then came the war and the blackout and it all went, 'Pouf!' Overnight, all the fun ended. We were reduced to creeping off to the cinema between air raids to watch thrillers ... I did so miss the partying and those awful games of murder." Pratt described himself as "an introvert, full of ruminations, speculations and imaginative notions".

While the bombs fell on his city, he found himself hankering after games of fantasy violence, in which the blackouts were voluntary and the killings make-believe. Like the thrillers he crept off to watch in the cinema, these parlour games made suspense a pleasure. Pratt and his wife Elva were friendly with a Mr and Mrs Bull, who lived near them in the Birmingham suburb of Kings Heath and who just before the war had sold a treasure-hunting game idea to the toy-makers Waddingtons (the Bulls' game, Buccaneer, remained in production until the 80s). Inspired by their neighbours' success, the Pratts decided to devise an entertainment based on Murder. Elva was the better artist, so she designed the board. The first floorplan was sketched on a piece of cardboard and the original pawns were matchsticks coloured in with crayon. The Pratts invited friends over to try out the prototypes. Detective novels had become extremely popular in the interwar years, and increasingly formulaic - many read almost as puzzles or brainteasers. The genre was ripe for adaptation as a logic game.

The novel on which Pratt seems to have drawn most directly was Agatha Christie's The Body In The Library, published in 1942, which opens with Colonel and Mrs Bantry of Gossington Hall discovering in their dusty library the corpse of a young, platinum-blond dancer called Ruby Keene. From the start, Pratt included a mustachioed colonel as one character in his game and a foxy platinum-blond woman as another. Miss Scarlett not only looks like Ruby Keene, but she has a similarly suggestive name - she brings a dangerous sexual frisson to the musty country house. In December 1944, after 18 months of tinkering with his invention, Pratt filed a preliminary patent application, which he followed up just under a year later with the full specifications. These included illustrations of nine weapons, probably drawn by Elva: an axe, a cudgel, a round fizzing bomb, a piece of rope, a dagger, a revolver, a hypodermic syringe, a bottle of poison and a poker. Of these, only the rope, gun and dagger made it into the finished game, along with three new implements - a candlestick, a spanner and a length of lead piping.

Pratt's patent application shows 10 rooms on the board, of which one (the gun room) was subsequently dropped, and 10 characters - Doctor Black, Mr Brown, Mr Gold, The Rev Mr Green, Miss Grey, Professor Plum, Miss Scarlet (spelled with only one "t" in the patent paperwork), Nurse White, Mrs Silver and Colonel Yellow. There were side elevations of two pawns, one in the shape of a long-necked bottle (this was to represent the male characters) and the other a squat bottle (for the women). The patent was granted in April 1947. With the Bulls' help, the Pratts arranged a meeting with Norman Watson, the managing director of Waddingtons, at his office in Leeds. Watson had been engaged in his own game of secrets through much of the war. From 1941, at the request of MI9, he had slipped escape tools into board games destined for British prisoner-of-war camps: tiny metal implements and silk maps of Norway, Sweden, Germany and France. In a reversal of his usual business, he had sent out real charts and weapons disguised as toys.

Watson quickly struck a deal with the Pratts, asking only that Colonel Yellow be renamed Colonel Mustard (yellow, the colour of cowardice, "had certain connotations inappropriate in a military man"). Though postwar shortages delayed production for a few months, the first sets of Cluedo were distributed in England in 1948 and in the US in 1949. The name - Pratt's idea - was an amalgam of "clue" and "Ludo", a late-19th-century English board game that in Latin means "I play". Since Americans were unfamiliar with Ludo, the US version was called Clue. The board's colours and design had a 30s, art deco look: the bright pistachio surround, the mustard-yellow tiles in the hallways, the pale beige rooms and the looping Cluedo logo on the darkening, bottle-green steps to the cellar. In the original set, the rope was made of thick, twisted thread and the five other weapons were cast in solid metal. There were just six characters, each represented by a coloured plastic pawn (all the same shape and height) and by a portrait on a card. Mrs Peacock is imperious.

Mrs White is boot-faced. The Reverend Green is smoothly pious. The game enjoyed immediate success, and more than 150 million sets have been sold over the past 60 years. A Cluedo-inspired film, Clue, appeared in 1985, and a British Cluedo gameshow, featuring former television stars such as Rula Lenska, Kate O'Mara and Andrew Sachs, ran from 1990 to 1993. Though sales of all board games have slowed since the advent of computers, video and DVD, Cluedo has kept its place in the international top 10. For the most part, the same characters have been used all over the world, though there are some regional variations: in Germany, Miss Scarlett is a young Chinese woman, Miss Ming. In Chile, the Reverend Green is a chef called Lettuce. In Finland, Colonel Mustard is Colonel Yellowbeak and in Switzerland he is Madame Curry.

The American company Hasbro, which acquired Waddingtons in 1994, has produced a few spinoffs, including Scooby Doo Cluedo, Harry Potter Cluedo, Simpsons Cluedo and Cluedo Junior: The Case Of The Missing Chocolate Cake. This year's version, though, gives the game its most complete makeover, and is designed to supersede the original. As well as new rooms and characters, Cluedo Reinvention includes a set of Intrigue cards and assigns special powers to each suspect. There are nine weapons instead of six, so there are no longer 324 possible solutions to the game (six characters times six weapons times nine rooms), but 486 (six times nine times nine). The extra twists add some spice, but the eagerly contemporary detail is bound to feel tacky before long. The Englishness and datedness of the original game are intrinsic to its appeal. Cluedo has always had a nostalgic aura, blurrily reminiscent of creepy old houses and buried family secrets - our fascination with the country-house mystery is rooted in a Victorian obsession with reputation and domestic privacy.

Colonel Mustard and Miss Scarlett have become cultural reference points, as have the billiard room, the candlestick, the lead piping. These are the images conjured up when people say, of a puzzling crime: "It's like a game of Cluedo." Anthony Pratt made "a lot of money" from his invention, he said. "Some quarters I'd receive a cheque for something like £30,000, other quarters it would be only hundreds and my wife would lament that we weren't Americans, who'd have made a fortune." He gave up his job as a clerk and became a pianist, travelling the country with his cousin Paul Beard, leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He bought houses in Bournemouth and Exmouth. But eventually the patents lapsed and with them the income. Pratt faded from view. When Waddingtons tried to track him down in the mid-90s to invite him to take part in Cluedo's 50th anniversary celebrations, they discovered that he had died in 1994, aged 90.

His gravestone in Bromsgrove Cemetery, Worcestershire, describes him as the "inventor of Cluedo" and "a very dear father"; he had a daughter, Marcia. Four years before his death, the Birmingham Evening Mail caught up with Pratt in his home in the city. He was by then a widower. The interviewer noted that he was eating a shepherd's pie provided by the local council's meals-on-wheels service and drinking a glass of madeira. In some ways, he still seemed to identify closely with his creation. When the reporter referred to Miss Scarlett as "Cluedo crumpet", Pratt recoiled: "That's a dreadful way to describe the poor girl. You might think that, but you mustn't say it. Goodness me, no." But when asked how he felt about losing the rights to his game, he showed no rancour. "We didn't mind, you know," he said. "It had been one of life's bonuses. A great deal of fun went into it.

So why grumble?" • Kate Summerscale's latest book, The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher, Or The Murder At Road Hill House, is published by Bloomsbury at £11.99. Hasbro Cluedo: Amazon.co.uk: Toys & Games Toys & Games Â£42.99 + Â£4.48 UK delivery Only 1 left in stock. Sold by Super Duper Add to Basket Please enter a valid UK postcode. Please enter a valid UK postcode. Dispatching to a British Forces Post Office? Change your region to 'UK - BFPOâ below: Or Fulfilled by Amazon Condition: Used: Good Comment: This game is complete in good used condition. Please expect some signs of use and wear. New Detective notes included. Please see images of the exact item you will receive. This item is re-sealed and contents secured to ensure its protection in transit and safe arrival to you. This item will be picked, packaged and shipped directly from an Amazon Fulfilment Centre. Free delivery available. Full Amazon Customer Support.

Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is a service Amazon offers sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's warehouses, and Amazon directly does the picking, packing, shipping and customer service on these items. Something Amazon hopes you'll especially enjoy: FBA items are eligible for and for Amazon Prime just as if they were Amazon items. If you're a seller, you can increase your sales significantly by using Fulfilment by Amazon. We invite you to learn more about this programme . Add to Basket Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon Image Unavailable Only 1 left in stock. This seller does not deliver to the United States. Learn more Dispatched from and sold by Super Duper . 3 new from Â£42.99 30 used from Â£4.75 1 collectible from Â£36.00 For more than 50 years, this mystery's kept everyone guessing! Poor Mr. Boddy's been murdered in his own stately home! Who could have done it? And how? And where? Was it Colonel Mustard in the Conservatory with the Revolver?

There are six suspects, six possible murder weapons and nine rooms in the mansion This leaaves hundreds of possibilities, and plenty of clues to investigate! For 3 to 6 players Manufacturer's recommended age 8 years + Everything you need to keep your resolutions. Shop now. See all buying options Â£42.99 Only 1 left in stock. Dispatched from and sold by Super Duper . Frequently Bought Together Add all three to Basket These items are dispatched from and sold by different sellers. Show details Buy the selected items together This item:Hasbro Cluedo Â£42.99 Only 1 left in stock. Sent from and sold by Super Duper. Â£4.48 delivery Sent from and sold by Amazon. FREE Delivery on orders over Â£20. Details Sold by Mytoyfactory and sent from Amazon Fulfillment. FREE Delivery on orders over Â£20. Details Sponsored Products Related To This Item (What's this?) Page 1 of 1 Start over Sponsored Products are advertisements for products sold by merchants on Amazon. When you click on a Sponsored Product ad, you will be taken to an Amazon detail page where you can learn more about the product and purchase it.

To learn more about Amazon Sponsored Products, click here . Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. 40.4 x 27.2 x 5 cm Manufacturer recommended age: 4.7 out of 5 stars Best Sellers Rank Visit the Delivery Destinations Help page to see where this item can be delivered. Date First Available This product is subject to specific safety warnings Warning: Not suitable for children under 8 years. For use under adult supervision Product Description 19 1/2 X 19 1/2 Clue Gameboard 6 Collectible Suspect Tokens Instructions in English and Spanish Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links What do customers buy after viewing this item? Best Selling • Top Rated Page 1 of 1 Start over Sponsored Products are advertisements for products sold by merchants on Amazon. When you click on a Sponsored Product ad, you will be taken to an Amazon detail page where you can learn more about the product and purchase it. To learn more about Amazon Sponsored Products, click here .

5.0 out of 5 stars Along with Monopoly, another timeless classic By Picard TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on 24 Mar. 2007 Its amazing how you can forget about such timeless games such as Cluedo, but after a spring clearout, I found a terribly old edition of Monopoly (with that awful stale smell!) and a 70's edition of Cluedo on top of my wardrobe. Cluedo seems to stand out the most, because it didn't cause as many as many arguments in the family, and its enjoyment factor is second to none. Its hard to review games and try to convince the buyer how good or bad they are - everyone has their own tastes on what they find enjoyable. Cluedo however, is very much a neutral game, because few people dislike it, or indeed, find it the best thing since sliced bread. You don't need lots of players, but do you need more than 2 (for an interesting game). Its not boring, but its not too exciting... Get the idea?

I bought this modern edition to find little has changed since the times of my 70's edition, apart from that the board has some nice pictures on it (replacing the awful plain mucky cream board) and that the playing pieces were improved (replacing little plastic cones, with balls on top). The packaging was also thankfully smaller. The game's objective is fairly straightforward - you simply need to discover who murdered the victim, using what weapon, and in what room. This is done through the process of elimination, and of course, this is were people play it differently. Play to the proper rules, and you'll have cramp in your legs due to hours of studying other players cards. Or, as we discovered, you can just simplfy the game if you have a time limit, which when I was kid, wasn't long if the Lego was in the room too. Read more ›

Question: How many rooms are there in the game of Cluedo?
Answer: NINE